


wake up (can’t you hear the birds singing)

by sailingthenightsea



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Fix It, I cried writing this, I’m sorry, Missing Scene, carl is and always will be my favorite baby, carl is dead, it’s short but worth the read i promise :), this takes place right after the bridge, wake up scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:28:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24363565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sailingthenightsea/pseuds/sailingthenightsea
Summary: you know that scene when rick saw carl during his last episode? me neither so i wrote it.
Relationships: Carl Grimes & Rick Grimes
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	wake up (can’t you hear the birds singing)

**Author's Note:**

> this starts right after the bridge blows up. short, sweet, emotional, painful. enjoy!

“Dad.”

Rick’s eyes fly open at the sound of  _ that _ voice, his son’s voice, half his heart’s voice, the voice echoing in his dreams and in his nightmares and in the shadows of a well lit room. (And those are the moments he tells no one else about, when he sees his son out of the corner of his eye and he knows he’s seeing things, but he can’t bear to lose that last ghost of him too.)

“Dad,” the voice says again, but it's not a voice, it’s Carl sitting on the living room floor of their house (and the room is torn apart like the last time Rick saw it, but Carl looks like he did right after they lost the prison, and Rick, Rick looks like he does right now).

“I found you,” Rick says and it all tastes like sand. There’s pain, so much pain, but it’s distant, so he ignores it.

Carl smiles and it’s so sad Rick reaches out and then he’s folding Carl into his arms (he doesn’t remember when they both stood, but that doesn’t matter now). “You did,” Carl says into his shoulder and he’s a little taller, a little older. Too fast.

“You did,” Carl repeats, pulling away just enough to look Rick in the eye, “but you can’t stay with me.” Rick shakes his head, closing his eyes.

When he opens them, Carl is even older. His eye is gone and Rick reaches out to adjust the bandage. “I’m tired,” he says. “I can’t leave you again.”

Carl’s face twists a little with pain. “You never left me. I never left.”

Rick shakes his head, then nods. “You did, you’re gone.”

“I’m always with you, Dad. Just because I’m dead doesn’t mean I’m gone.”

“I’m tired,” Rick says again. It sounds a little like a plea.

Now they’re at the prison, standing at the chain link fence. Carl is eye level with him.

“I know,” he says and it hurts. “I know, Dad, but you’re not done yet. You can rest later, but you have to get home first. To Michonne, to Judith.” The pain changes to something like mischief and Rick aches. “To RJ,” Carl says and echoes in a way that Rick isn’t sure what he said wasn’t the wind.

They’re standing in the middle of empty train tracks. Then in the woods outside of Alexandria.

Rick knows they’re almost at the end, now.

“I love you. So much, Carl, so much.”

Carl smiles so sadly it hardly counts as a smile. “I love you too, Dad.”

“I’m sorry,” he says, but Carl shakes his head. Dismisses it.

“It’s time, Dad.” The road, the sewer, the church, the bridge. “You have to wake up.”

Rick opens his eyes and everything is bright and sharp with pain. He’s on a river bank and he hears Carl’s voice echoing in his ears, high pitched and ringing.

He drags himself up from the red mud (it’s clay like home but there’s blood too and he knows somewhere that it’s his). Grass rips and tears and he pulls his body over the lip of the earth. He finds his feet and lunges from tree to tree.

_ Almost there, _ Carl says in his ear.

_ They’re looking, _ he says.  _ Just a little farther, Dad. _

“RICK,” someone calls from somewhere ahead. Rick groans, but he pushes.

“RICK!”

“Here,” he says, but it comes out a whisper. “Here,” he calls just a little bit stronger.

_ You’re so close, Dad, come on! _

There’s a surge of strength and when he calls out he hears Carl’s voice alongside his.

Daryl tears through the trees and catches Rick right as he goes down.

“He’s here! He’s alive!”

After that, the sounds and colors blur. The last thing he remembers before falling into the soft darkness is Carl’s voice.

_ You found them. _

**Author's Note:**

> hope y’all liked it!! this is just a short drabble while i work on a longer twd timeline rewrite fic.
> 
> i love feedback even if it’s just a quick “<3”
> 
> hmu on my [main tumblr](%E2%80%9C) or my [twd sideblog](%E2%80%9C)! also my editing instagram is @sailingvfx if you’re into that kinda thing :)


End file.
